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Winter landscape showing two people walking down a snowy country road

In the foreground a snow covered road fills the view, receding diagonally toward center-right into the distance, to curve to the right and disappear around a hill, under a light gray cloudy sky. On the left side of the road, a man with a walking stick, and a woman carrying a bag walk away from us, alongside the fence at the side of the road. On the right side of the road, recent wheel tracks curve through the bright white snow, while the middle has taken on a muddy beige hue. Leafless trees stand on either side of the road, the ground sloping sharply upward on the right.

Gallery Text

Monet painted at least ten views of this road between 1864 and 1867, in what some scholars consider to be his first serial investigation of a subject. Since the early nineteenth century, landscape artists had flocked to Honfleur, in Normandy, and the inn at Saint-Siméon became an informal artists’ colony, which was made more accessible with the arrival of the railroad in 1862. Unlike his contemporaries, Monet did not paint any of the area’s recognizable landmarks or distinguishing features, but focused on the prosaic road beside the farm. His captivating depiction of snow, distinct from the white clouds above, was the product of careful studies made outdoors. As one critic observed: “We glimpsed a little heater, then an easel, then a gentleman swathed in three overcoats, with gloved hands, his face half-frozen. It was M. Monet, studying an aspect of the snow.”

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.260
People
Claude Monet, French (Paris, France 1840 - 1926 Giverny, France)
Title
Road toward the Farm Saint-Siméon, Honfleur
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Road toward the Farm, Saint-Siméon, Honfleur
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1867
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299844

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2100, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Centuries of Tradition, Changing Times: Art for an Uncertain Age
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
54.6 x 79.4 cm (21 1/2 x 31 1/4 in.)
framed: 75.6 x 100.3 x 8.9 cm (29 3/4 x 39 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: Claude Monet

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
L. LeBrun,sold; [his sale, through Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, February 23, 1918, no. 21]; to M. Martel [possibly Édouard Martell 1834-1928] by descent?; to
Mme [ née Caroline Estelle Elisabeth Mallet] Martell, sold; [ anonymously, through Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 26, 1928, no. 14]; to [Wildenstein & Company, New York, NY (1928-1935)] sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, (1935-1943) bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.260
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • The Complete Works of Claude Monet 1870-1889, Rizzoli (Milan, Italy, n.d.), p. 90, repr. p. 89
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 7
  • Maurice Malingue, Claude Monet, Les Documents d'Art (Monaco, 1943), pp. 36, 145, repr. p. 36
  • Oscar Reuterswärd, Monet, en konstnarshistorik, Albert Bonniers Förlag (Stockholm, Sweden, 1948), repr. p. 29
  • William Chapin Seitz, Claude Monet, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1960), repr. p. 20, no. 17
  • George Heard Hamilton, 19th and 20th century art: painting, sculpture, architecture, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1970), repr. p. 101, no. 87
  • Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Biographie et Catalogue Raisonné, La Bibliothèque des Arts (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1974 - 1991), no. 80, pp. 157-158, repr.
  • James N. Carpenter, Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1974), p. 61, 63, cat. 26, ill.
  • Robert Gordon and Andrew Forge, Monet, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1983), repr. in b/w p. 40
  • Charles F. Stuckey, ed., Monet: a Retrospective, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc. (New York, NY, 1985), repr. in b/w p. 40
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 218, p. 192, repr. in b/w
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 120, repr. as no. 344
  • Eric M. Rosenberg and Miriam Stewart, The Harvest of 1830: The Barbizon Legacy, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 20
  • John Hollander, The Gazer's Spirit: Poems Speaking to Silent Works of Art, University of Chicago Press (Chicago IL and London, England, 1995), pp. 339-343; repr. in b/w p. 340
  • Daniel Wildenstein, Monet (Cologne, Germany, 1996), vol. 2, pp. 43-44, no. 80, repr.
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • The Brattler: Intimate Landscapes, Harvard Extension School Writing Program (Cambridge, MA, 1997), repr. in b&w on cover, bleeds to back
  • Impressionists in Winter: Effets de neige, exh. cat. (Washington DC, 1998), pp. 17, repr. as fig. 5; 82
  • Adrian Lewis, "Monet's Route de la ferme St.-Siméon series (1864-1867)", Apollo (August 2000), vol. 152, no. 462, pp. 39-47, p. 45, repr. p. 46 as fig. 11
  • Norio Shimada and Keiko Sakagami, Claude Monet 1881-1926, exh. cat., Toppan Tanc (Japan, 2001), pp. 26-27, repr. in color as fig. 6
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 91, pp. 230-232, repr. in color
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 91, pp. 240-242, repr. in color
  • Marco Goldin, Gli Impressionisti e la Neve: La Francia e l'Europa, exh. cat., Linea d'Ombra (Conegliano, 2004), repr. in b/w p. 255
  • George Raitt, "Alchemy and Ambiguity: Poetic Responses to Visual Art, Primarily Portraiture" (2005), pp. 11, 22-31; repr. in b/w p. 24
  • George Raitt, "Ekphrasis and illumination of painting: the end of the road?", Word & Image (January 2006-March 2006), vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 14-26, pp. 14, 21-25, repr. p. 21 as fig. 2
  • Ségolène Le Men, Monet, Citadelles & Mazenod (Paris, 2010), p. 128, ill. 102
  • George T.M. Shackelford, Richard Shiff, Anthea Callen, Richard Thomson, and Yale University Press, Monet: The Early Years, exh. cat. (New Haven, 2016), repr. as fig.27 on p.36; pp. 36-37

Exhibition History

  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/25/1974 - 06/16/1974
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
  • The Harvest of 1830: the Barbizon Legacy, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/25/1990 - 10/21/1990
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu